Before we can finally kiss this dismal year goodbye, I wanted to squeeze in another installment of my recurring rock/pop music history feature. Without further ado, here are some of the events that happened in the music world on December 29.
1965: American rock band The Sir Douglas Quintet were busted for marijuana possession in Corpus Christi, Texas. They got probation when they appeared in court with short hair, wearing suits. “I’m glad you cut your hair,” the judge told them. “I saw your pictures in the paper when you were arrested and I don’t go for that stuff.” The episode came in the wake of the band’s best-known song She’s About a Mover, written by their founder Doug Sahm.
1966: The Beatles were at EMI Studios at Abbey Road, working on three songs during three sessions: When I’m Sixty-Four, Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane. None of the four mono mixes of When I’m Sixty-Four they made that day was used. The work on Strawberry Fields Forever included a tape copy of a December 22 mono mix, as well as creating the final stereo mix. I’ll skip the details, which laid out in The Beatles Bible. Paul McCartney also recorded the first takes of Penny Lane, working into the early morning hours of the following day. Here’s the magnificent Strawberry Fields Forever.
1967: Dave Mason left Traffic barely three weeks after the English rock band had released their debut album Mr. Fantasy. Only eight months earlier, Mason had been one of Traffic’s co-founders, together with Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood. Apparently, Mason didn’t have much interest in collaborating on songs. “We all [Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood] tended to write together, but Mason would come in with a complete song that he was going to sing and tell us all what he expected us to play,” Winwood later recalled. “No discussion, like we were his backing group.” Mason would rejoin Traffic in 1968 while they were recording their eponymous sophomore album only to leave again after its release. Here’s House for Everyone, one of three tunes on Mr. Fantasy written by Mason.
1968: Led Zeppelin performed at Civic Auditorium in Portland, Ore. on their first 1968/1969 North American tour, opening for Vanilla Fudge. According to setlist.fm, their set included The Train Kept a-Rollin’, I Can’t Quit You Baby, As Long As I Have You, Dazed and Confused, White Summer/Black Mountain Side and How Many More Times. Here’s a clip of Dazed and Confused from 1968, or as somebody in the comments pointed out 1969. In any case, it’s probably reasonably close to how Zep sounded that night in Portland.
1973: Time in a Bottle, one of my favorite songs by Jim Croce, hit no. 1 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100. Sadly, Croce was no longer around to witness the success. On September 20, 1973, he died at the age of 30 when his chartered plane crashed into a tree during takeoff from Natchitoches Regional Airport in Natchitoches, La. All other five members on board of the plane were also killed: Pilot Robert N. Elliott, Maury Muehleisen, comedian George Stevens, manager and booking agent Kenneth D. Cortese and road manager Dennis Ras. Time in a Bottle became Croce’s second and last no. 1 hit in the U.S. after Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, another great tune he had first released as a single in March of the same year.
Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts Music History Calendar; The Beatles Bible; Setlist.fm; This Day in Music; YouTube
Inspired by Hans Postcard’s fun 2020 album draft, where 10 participants pick albums in 10 rounds for a total of 100, I decided to put together my list of 10 albums I would take on a desert island. Essentially, I already came up with such a collection in May 2018, but some things have changed in the meantime and this list features five new picks, including three different artists.
While each of the albums are longtime favorites, I still can’t exclude the possibility that my picks might be different in a month or two. Since I couldn’t figure out how to rank my selections, I ingeniously decided to put them in chronological order. Conveniently, this means kicking things off with my favorite band of all time.
The Beatles/Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (May 1967)
While I dig all albums by the Fab Four, on most days, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is my favorite. The innovative use of recording technology, the cover art and the combination of different music styles like vaudeville, circus, music hall, avant-garde and traditional Indian music with pop and rock make Sgt. Pepper a true masterpiece. The first album after The Beatles had stopped touring was influenced by The Beach Boys’Pet Sounds, which Brian Wilson had created in response to Revolver, as well as Freak Out! by the Mothers of Invention. Had it not been because of silly pressure from EMI to issue Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane as a single, Sgt. Pepper hands-down would have been the strongest Beatles album. Still, with tunes like the title track, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, Within You Without You and the magnificent A Day in the Life, there’s lots of great music.
Carole King/Tapestry (February 1971)
Carole King’sTapestry perhaps is the ultimate singer-songwriter album. Her sophomore release from 1971 featured 10 new tunes and two reinterpretations of songs King had written together with her former husband and lyricist Jerry Goffin in the ’60s. Like many of their other songs, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman became hits, in these cases by The Shirelles and Aretha Franklin, respectively. There’s really no weak tune on Tapestry and I could have selected any. It’s Too Late has always been one of my favorites.
The Rolling Stones/Sticky Fingers (April 1971)
I know many fans of The Rolling Stones consider Exile on Main St. or Some Girls as their best albums. While I can’t claim to know all of their records in detail, my favorite is Sticky Fingers. This was the second full-length record with Mick Taylor who had replaced Brian Jones in June 1969. Between Brown Sugar, Wild Horses, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, Bitch, Sister Morphine and Dead Flowers, there are so many classics on this album. I just think the Stones never sounded better. And interestingly, it’s the country-influenced Dead Flowers that has become one of my favorite Stones tunes. I just love the guitar work!
Marvin Gaye/What’s Going On (May 1971)
I think Marvin Gaye had one of the most beautiful soulful voices I know. This artist was a smooth operator, even when he sang about serious issues like on this album. …(Oh, crime is increasin’) Oh, woo/Trigger happy policin’/panic is spreadin’/God knows where we’re headin’/Oh baby/Make me wanna holler/They don’t understand/Make me wanna holler/They don’t understand…It’s remarkable these lyrics were written almost 50 years, yet they sound frighteningly relevant in America in the year 2020.
Neil Young/Harvest (February 1972)
I dig a good number of Neil Young songs and feel his first compilation Decade is one of the best greatest hits collections I can think of. When it comes to his albums, my favorites are Harvest from 1972 and Harvest Moon from 1992. While I think the title track of the latter is among Young’s best tunes, I have a slight preference for Harvest from an overall album perspective. Featuring David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt as guests, it became Young’s most successful record and the best-selling album in the U.S. in 1972 – in part thanks to Heart of Gold, which remains Young’s only no. 1 song on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 to this day. There are many other gems on the record, including The Needle and the Damage Done.
Deep Purple/Machine Head (March 1972)
I don’t listen to hard rock a lot these days, but when I do, Deep Purple remain my favorite choice, especially their sixth studio album Machine Head from March 1972. I’ve always thought one of the cool things about this band are the equal roles the guitar and the keyboards play as solo instruments. Jon Lord was a true master of the Hammond organ who skillfully blended blues, hard rock and jazz with elements of classical music. Lazy is one of the tracks on which Lord shines in particular.
Pink Floyd/The Dark Side of the Moon (March 1973)
First, I was going to pick Meddle, Pink Floyd’s sixth studio album from October 1971. With the great Echoes, it foreshadowed the band’s classic mid-’70s sound on The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. All three albums are among my favorite Floyd records. Eventually, I settled on The Dark Side of the Moon. It’s a perfect album for headphones, and I’ve listened to it countless times at night in bed. The sound is just phenomenal. One of the standout tracks is The Great Gig In the Sky and the amazing vocal performance by British singer Clare Torry.
Bruce Springsteen/Born to Run (August 1975)
Bruce Springsteen entered my radar screen in 1984 with the Born in the U.S.A. album. While I’m still fond of that record, I subsequently explored and came to appreciate his earlier work. To me, Born to Run turned out to be Springsteen’s Mount Rushmore. After two albums that were critically acclaimed but not successful from a commercial perspective, he really needed a hit. Born to Run would turn out to be exactly that and catapult Springsteen to fame beyond the U.S. Apart from the title song, my favorite tracks on the album include Thunder Road, Backstreets, Jungleland and the beautiful soul-oriented Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.
Stevie Wonder/Songs in the Key of Life (September 1976)
Stevie Wonder has been one of my favorite artists for 40 years. I dig many of his songs starting from when he was known as Little Stevie Wonder. But it’s his classic period in the ’70s I like the most, especially the albums Talking Book (October 1972), Innervisions (August 1973) and Songs in the Key of Life (September 1976). The latter became the best-selling and most critically acclaimed album of Wonder’s long career. Here’s his beautiful tribute to jazz legend Duke Ellington who had passed away in May 1974.
Steely Dan/Aja (September 1977)
I’m wrapping up this list with Steely Dan. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen made many great records, but it’s this gem from September 1977 that’s my favorite: Aja. As usual, Becker and Fagen assembled top-notch session musicians to record the album. There were also prominent guests, including Michael McDonald and Timothy B. Schmit. All of the tracks on this album are great. Deacon Blues is my favorite Steely Dan song, but since I previously featured it more than once, I’m going with the closer Josie.
Pioneer of Deutsch Rock is still going strong after more than 45 years
Udo Lindenberg is probably one of those artists most people either love or hate. While the rock musician, writer and painter has had his ups and downs over a more than 40-year career, to me he’s one of the leading contemporary German artists. Today, Lindenberg, an early pioneer of Deutsch Rock, released his 11th live album, MTV Unplugged 2: Live Vom Atlantik. His vast catalog also includes 36 studio records, as well as numerous compilations and box sets. With all of that, I felt a playlist feature was warranted.
Udo Gerhard Lindenberg was born on May 17, 1946 in the West German town of Gronau. Already as a child, he developed a good sense of rhythm and was drawn to playing the drums, initially banging on fuel barrels. As a 15-year-old, he started performing in bars in the town of Duesseldorf where he was doing an apprenticeship at a local hotel. After drifting for various years, Lindenberg went to the Northern German town of Hamburg in 1968 where his music career started to take off soon thereafter.
City Preachers in 1970 (from left): Udo Lindenberg, Dagmar Krause, Jean-Jacques Kravetz, Inga Rumpf und Karl-Heinz Schott
First, he became the drummer of City Preachers, which are considered to be Germany’s first folk rock group. In 1969, he co-founded the German jazz rock formation Free Orbit. In October 1970, they released their first and I believe only album. It was in English and featured Lindenberg on drums and vocals. In the early ’70s, Lindenberg also worked with a few other bands, most notably jazz saxophone player Klaus Doldinger for the first record of his jazz fusion band Passport.
Lindenberg’s eponymous debut album, sung in English, appeared in August 1971. It failed to make an impact. The sophomore, Daumen Im Wind (Thumbs In The Wind) from 1972, was his first German language record. It didn’t sell well either, though the single Hoch Im Norden (All The Way Up North) gained some popularity, especially on Northern German radio stations. Lindenberg’s commercial breakthrough came in December 1973 with his third studio album Alles Klar Auf Der Andrea Doria (All Clear On Board Of Andrea Doria). The title refers to the Italian luxury passenger vessel that collided with another passenger ship in July 1956 on route to New York near the coast of Nantucket, Mass.
Udo Lindenberg and Alice Cooper in July 2018
For the remainder of the ’70s and during the ’80s, Lindenberg continued to release studio albums that were pretty successful in Germany, including four records that achieved Gold status. In 1980, he produced the comedy movie Panische Zeiten (Panic Times), in which he also co-starred. During the ’90s and early 2000s, his success on the music front started to wane. Since the mid-’90s, Lindenberg had also increasingly emerged as a painter. His first exhibition was in 1996 and several others followed over the years. In March 2008, Lindenberg at age 62 staged a major musical comeback with his 35th studio album Stark Wie Zwei (Strong Like Two). The record became his first no. 1 in Germany and also charted in Austria and Switzerland, peaking at no. 2 and no. 7, respectively.
In September 2011, Lindenberg scored his biggest music success to date with the live album MTV Unplugged – Live aus dem Hotel Atlantic, his first MTV special. It topped the German record charts and peaked at no. 6 in each Austria and Switzerland; with more than 1.1 million units sold, it also became Lindenberg’s best-seller. His most recent studio album Stärker als die Zeit (Stronger Than Time) from April 2016 continued his string of successful releases. Once again, the record topped the German charts, and climbed two no. 2 and no. 7 in Switzerland and Austria, respectively. Time for some music!
I’d like to start things off with the title track of Lindenberg’s breakthrough album Alles Klar Auf Der Andrea Doria. He wrote the lyrics and the music of the dixieland style tune. The album, which Lindenberg also co-produced, was the first to feature Panikorchester (Panic Orchestra). Founded in August 1973, the band has backed Lindenberg throughout the decades, though there have been numerous lineup changes over time.
Honky Tonky Show is a rocker from Lindenberg’s Ball Pompös, his fourth studio album from August 1974. The lyrics were written by Lindenberg, while the music is credited to him and pianist Gottfried Böttger, who at the time was a member of Panikorchester.
In April 1975, Udo Lindenberg released his fifth studio album Votan Wahnwitz, his first Gold record. Here’s Null-Rhesus Negativ (O Rhesus Negative). Lindenberg wrote both the music and lyrics of the song, which is a good example of his sense of humor. It describes the story of a man who runs into a vampire. When he reveals his blood type, the vampire tells him he doesn’t tolerate it. As a consolation, the guy then invites the vampire to a bar where they chat about life as a creature of the night.
Apart from writing his own music, Lindenberg also created German covers of various famous English songs. Sometimes he used the music and wrote new lyrics, such as for Penny Lane by The Beatles, which he turned into a song about Hamburg’s red light district known as Reeperbahn. In other cases, he developed German adaptations like for The Animals’We’ve Gotta Get Out Of This Place (Verdammt Wir Müssen Raus Aus Dem Dreck) or the tune I’m highlighting here, Sympathie für den Teufel (Sympathy For The Devil), by The Rolling Stones. He included all of the aforementioned tunes on an album released in May 1978 called Lindenbergs Rock-Revue.
One of my favorite 70s Lindenberg records is his first live album Livehaftig, which appeared in May 1979. Here’s the great ballad Sie Ist 40 (She Is 40), which represents the reflective side of Lindenberg. The tune is about a 40-year-old woman who is stuck in an unhappy marriage, asks herself whether that’s all what’s in store for her and daydreams about living with a guy like James Dean. The lyrics were co-written by Lindenberg and German singer-songwriter Ulla Meinecke, with music by Lindenberg.
In January 1983, Lindenberg’s 16th studio album Odyssee appeared. It became popular largely because of the single Sonderzug Nach Pankow (Special Train To Pankow). Pankow refers to the borough in East Berlin where the government of the GDR (the former East Germany) was based. The song was Lindenberg’s appeal to GDR head Erich Honecker to allow him to perform in East Germany. Just like in the Soviet Union, Western rock music was banned in the GDR, since the socialist regime regarded it as subversive. The tune illustrates Lindenberg’s political side, which became very active during the ’80s. The music is based on U.S. swing classic Chattanooga Choo Choo.
Next I’d like to jump to Lindenberg’s above mentioned 2008 comeback album Stark Wie Zwei (Strong Like Two). One of the tunes on that record is Mein Ding (My Thing) with lyrics by Lindenberg and music by guitarist Jörg Sander and songwriter/musician Sandi Strmljan. Here’s the official video featuring cartoon drawings by Lindenberg.
The last tune I’d like to highlight is from Lindenberg’s new live album MTV Unplugged 2: Live Vom Atlantik: No More Mr. Nice Guy (So’n Ruf Musste Dir Dir Verdienen) featuring Alice Cooper. The album was compiled from three concerts Lindenberg conducted with prominent guests in July 2018 at Kampnagel, a performance venue in Hamburg. Cooper co-wrote the song with Alice Cooper rhythm guitarist and keyboardist Michael Bruce for the band’s sixth studio album Billion Dollar Babies from February 1973. Apparently, Cooper and Lindenberg have known each other for 40 years. Here’s a cool video of the tune.
Over his career, Udo Lindenberg has sold more than 4.4 million records in Germany. His first MTV unplugged album accounts for approximately 1.1 million of these units, making it one of the best-selling records in Germany since 1975. The companion video album sold more than 200,000 copies and is also one of the most successful such releases in Germany. In addition, Lindenberg has received multiple awards for his artistic work and his social and political engagement. The latter includes the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz), the only federal decoration of Germany, for his efforts to advance peace and understanding between East and West.
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